China Is Said to Plan Strict Gas Mileage Rules

newyorktimes.com 5/27/09

global
chapter 19

China is said to have stricter gas mileage laws than the ones that President Barack Obama is talking about imposing. This is due to China worrying that they are relying to heavily on imported oil. This new plan would require Chinese manufactures to improve their fuel efficiency by an additional 18% by 2015. In China, small cars are subject to 1 percent sales tax while cars with the largest engines are subject to 40% sales tax. China also wants to improve their gas mileage laws because they are worries of increased air pollution and this could really help this growing problem. It is estimated that the average new car will be required to get 42.2 miles per gallon in China. If the U.S. passes the new bill that Barack Obama is imposing, it will require each automaker to reach a corporate average of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016. China claims that most new cars in China already get about 35.8 miles per gallon.

With China imposing new gas mileage laws, the whole world will hopefully follow in their footsteps. I really think this is a good sign that the world is recognizing the growing problems with air pollution and our reliance on non-renewable resources. One thing that bothers me is that the United States can't keep up with China's miles per gallon laws and will be about 8 miles per gallon lower than China. This might be due to the U.S. having bigger cars and families. Overall, this is very good and hopefully the rest of the world will follow these two countries and implement stricter gas mileage rules.